Martinsville, Va. – Kyle Busch was mature, friendly, engaging and cooperative Friday morning as he made his weekly appearance in front of the NASCAR media.

His performance behind the microphone wasn’t surprising, even given his past behavior in similar situations. In fact, Kevin Harvick, once one of the more vocal critics of both Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle, said as much just minutes before Busch took his seat behind the microphone. He had nothing but praise for both Busch brothers.

Harvick said most of the boos the Buschs get are because they’re winning races. Entering Martinsville, the duo has won three straight Sprint Cup races– two by Kyle, at Las Vegas and Bristol, and one by Kurt, at Atlanta.

“You get in situations where [fans] don’t necessarily like what you say or do,” Harvick said, speaking from his own personal experiences earlier in his career. “That’s the situation they’re kind of in. When you’re winning a lot people don’t like you because you’re winning a lot.”

But Harvick said there’s no debate about their abilities.

“They’re both very talented people,” he said. “Maybe a lot of people don’t see eye-to-eye with what they do, but you can’t argue with the fact that they’re very successful on the race track, and I think it can continue.”

Harvick also said Kyle Busch is getting better at dealing with fans and the media.

“I think Kyle gets more savvy off the race track every week….” he said. “In time as you get older and get in more situations you become more comfortable with what you do and say off the race track.

“But as long as he keeps having results on the race track it isn’t going to matter.”

In his time before the press, Busch, now fourth in the Cup standings and first in the Camping World Truck Series, recounted an appearance earlier in the week in which he raced a radio personality around the Washington Beltway. He said that along the way, he picked up some new fans.

“Everybody had so much fun tuning in and listening and watching and seeing us going down the road that seven or eight or nine callers tuned in … and said ‘I’m a Kyle Busch fan; never thought I’d say that,’” Busch said. “It’s just that people get to see more of really who I am and how I can have fun and be as easygoing as anybody else out there.”

Busch also downplayed the fuss made over his comments a week ago in which he seemed to take a verbal shot at Dale Earnhardt Jr., pointing out his lack of success despite being the sport’s biggest star.

Earnhardt is the driver who replaced Busch at Hendrick Motorsports.

“I’m proud of the fact that I’m outperforming the guy who replaced me at Hendrick,” he said. “But that’s not what this sport is all about. It’s to be the most consistent and to keep learning and to keep getting better and ultimately to win championships.”

He also had kind words for Earnhardt.

“He’s got a lot of weight on his shoulders,” Busch said. “But he’s out there doing the best that he can do also. It’s hard to win a race in this sport.

“You have to look at everybody’s situation as different and how ours has come together a little better than theirs for some reason.”